Getting started

To start with LongHorn, run npm create longhorn@latest to generate a project. The new project has its own copy of the framework, plus tests and guides.

LongHorn is an early alpha. It has not been deployed to production, and its APIs can still change.

What you need

Node 20.19 or newer
pnpm 12.6

Create a project

npm create longhorn@latest my-api -- --runtime node
cd my-api
pnpm install
pnpm dev

curl http://127.0.0.1:3000/health
# {"status":"ok","runtime":"node","ready":true}

The smallest app

app.http is a real Hono app, so Hono routers and middleware work directly.

import { Longhorn } from '@longhornjs/core'
import { nodeRuntime } from '@longhornjs/node'

const app = new Longhorn()

app.http.get('/hello/:name', (c) =>
  c.json({ message: `Hello, ${c.req.param('name')}` }))

const server = await app.listen(nodeRuntime, { port: 3000 })
console.log(server.url)

Choose a starting template

You are building	Create it with
An HTTP API	`npm create longhorn@latest my-api -- --runtime node`, or `bun`, `deno`, `workers`
An app with a database	`pnpm create:app ../my-app --runtime node --template sqlite-tasks`, or `bun`, `deno`
An app with accounts	`pnpm create:app ../my-app --runtime node --template sqlite-auth`, or `bun`, `deno`
A Worker with storage	`pnpm create:app ../my-app --runtime workers --template d1-tasks`
The complete console	`pnpm create:app ../my-app --runtime node --template command-app`, which needs PostgreSQL

Templates don't work from the npm 0.1.0 packages yet, so pnpm create:app runs from a clone of the repository, after pnpm install.

Next: run it on another host, or read the starter guide.